The present invention relates to a singing or vocal sound synthesizing apparatus which converts given text data into words of an arbitrary song and generates synthesized vocal sounds in accordance with a preferable melody.
Various read or narration apparatuses, which are conventionally known as voice synthesizers, generate vocal sounds with natural speaking intonations.
On the other hand, there is a requirement of synthesizing the vocal sounds with a melody. However, when the given text data are not related to a selected melody, it is generally difficult to match the text data with the melody.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for automatically matching the given text data to an arbitrarily selected melody.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium storing a software program performing the singing or vocal sound synthesizing operation of the present invention.
To accomplish the above and other related objects of the present invention, the present invention provides a singing apparatus comprises a syllable conversion means for converting text data into syllable information, a vocal interval information generating means for generating vocal interval information, an assigning means for automatically assigning the syllable information received from the syllable conversion means to the vocal interval information supplied from the vocal interval information generating means, and an output means for generating the vocal sound of the assigned syllable information so as to have an interval variable in accordance with the corresponding vocal interval information.
When a playing or performance time is dependent on the vocal interval information, it is preferable that the assigning means is for performing the assignment of the syllable information according to the vocal interval information in such a manner that the playing or performance time can be varied in accordance with a syllable number of the syllable information.
When the vocal interval information involves a total number of notes of a melody, it is preferable that the assigning means is for performing the assignment of the syllable information according to the vocal interval information in such a manner that the number of notes of the melody is changed in accordance with the syllable number of the syllable information.
It is also preferable that the assigning means is for performing the assignment of the syllable information according to the vocal interval information by selecting an optimum one of melodies stored in the vocal interval information generating means.
A separating means may be provided for separating the syllable information into a plurality of syllable groups, and the assigning means is for assigning each of the separated syllable groups to the vocal interval information.
A backing information generating means may be provided for generating backing or accompaniment information, and the output means is for generating backing or accompaniment in synchronism with the vocal sound of the syllable information which is generated in accordance with the vocal interval information.
A performance information storing means may be provided for storing playing or performance information including the vocal interval information and the backing or accompaniment information. In this case, the backing information generating means is for generating selected one of a plurality kinds of the backing or accompaniment information involved in the playing or performance information stored in the performance information storing means.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a recording medium storing a program performing steps of converting given text data into syllable information, assigning the syllable information to desirable vocal interval information, and generating vocal sound of assigned syllable information so as to have an interval variable in accordance with a melody of the vocal interval information.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a recording medium storing playing or performance information including backing or accompaniment information to be reproduced as a background music, and vocal interval information to be assigned to syllable information.
Furthermore, another aspect of the present invention provides a vocal sound synthesizing method comprising the steps for realizing the above-described singing or vocal sound synthesizing operations.